- Chris Palmer – President

Christopher Palmer – President (Board of Directors)

In addition to his work with MacGillivray Freeman, Chris is also Distinguished Film Producer in Residence and Director of the Center for Environmental Filmmaking at the School of Communication at American University in Washington, D.C.  Chris founded the Center in 2004 and has created three groundbreaking classes: Producing Environmental and Wildlife Films, which teaches students the keys to being a successful film producer; Classroom in the Wild, which takes students to wilderness areas in Florida and Alaska to learn the basics of natural history filmmaking; and Environmental and Wildlife Production, which gives students the opportunity to produce environmental films for network television.

In 1983, Chris founded the nonprofit National Audubon Society Productions, serving as president and CEO for 11 years. In 1994, he founded the nonprofit National Wildlife Productions (part of the National Wildlife Federation, the largest conservation organization in the United States) which he managed as president and CEO for 10 years, directing NWF's launch into broadcast, cable, syndication, home video, new media, IMAX, and international markets.

In the 20 years before becoming a film producer, he was a naval officer, an engineer, a business consultant, an energy analyst, chief energy advisor to a senior U.S. senator, a political appointee in President Jimmy Carter’s EPA, and an environmental activist.  He has a B.S. with First Class Honors in Mechanical Engineering and an M.S. in Ocean Engineering and Naval Architecture from University College London, and a second master’s degree in Public Administration from Harvard University where he was a Kennedy Scholar.